Part 89

Adult female: Resembles adult female of E. t. monachum, but larger; forehead slate-gray; crown brownish-gray, browner on nape; back chocolate-brown; rump rufous; upper tail-coverts more cinnamon; wing and tail brownish-black, outer margins of primaries edged with buff; outer margins of secondaries and upper wing-coverts except primary wing-coverts edged with rufous; central tail feathers like back but tipped with buff, other tail feathers more broadly tipped with buff; lores grayish-black; malar stripe to auriculars darker and more brownish-black with lighter shafts; underparts rufous, under wing paler and more buffy.

Immature: Resembles adult female, but forehead grayish tinged with ochre; crown and neck brown becoming slightly more reddish on back and more burnt reddish-brown on rump; tail edged and tipped with buff; primaries tipped with whitish, secondaries broadly edged with buff, primary wing-coverts tipped with buffy-white; lores blackish; ear-coverts rufous with lighter shafts; tail feathers pointed while in adult more rounded. Younger birds resemble older ones, but plumage except wings and tail may be spotted or barred with buff and black with whitish margins.

Measurements.--Measurements are listed in table 34.

Specimens examined.--Total number, 46 (23 males, 23 females), from Caroline Islands, AMNH--Ponapé (Nov., Dec.).

Nesting.--Coultas (field notes) writes that the nest is cup-shaped, made of grasses and strands of hair fern, and placed at low elevations in small trees and bushes. He was told that two eggs are laid. He comments that the nesting season had just been completed in November and December (the time of his visit to Ponapé), because he noted juveniles being attended and fed by the adults.

Molt.--Most of the specimens taken by Coultas in November and December are in fresh plumage or in the final stages of molt, indicating that the molt was initiated possibly in September and would be completed possibly in January. This time of molt appears to be approximately one month later than the time of molt of E. t. monachum of Palau. Probably the bird at the Palau Islands breeds slightly earlier in the year than the subspecies on Ponapé.

Examination of the large series of birds taken by Coultas at Ponapé shows the presence of three types of plumages. The writer has not made a thorough diagnosis of these plumages, but suspects that the phenomenon obtained here is the same as was found by Mayr (1933e) in his study of Neolalage banksiana (Gray), which is a related bird. Immatures of E. t. insperatum seemingly present two plumages, which, if Mayr's arrangement is followed, may be interpreted as a more primitive or "retarded" type in one case, with less striking plumage, barred with black and buff, and a more advanced or "progressive" type in the other case, with plumage of the latter resembling more the adult type, especially the adult female. It was not ascertained whether any of these specimens represented adult birds in "retarded" plumage.

Remarks.--The Cicada Bird at Ponapé resembles in habits its related subspecies at Palau. Coultas (field notes) writes that it is a forest bird, with retiring habits. He observed the birds in small groups, and describes their musical call notes as "to-to-wee, to-to-wee" repeated several times.

Evolutionary history of Edolisoma tenuirostre in Micronesia.--Mayr (in Stresemann, 1939:126) first pointed out the close relationship between the cicada birds of Micronesia and Edolisoma tenuirostre of the Solomon Islands. Up to that time the Micronesian birds were considered to belong to the genus Lalage. The cicada birds probably invaded Micronesia along two independent routes from a dispersal center in the Papuan area. The form at Palau, E. t. monachum, resembles closely several of the subspecies to the south and southwest, particularly those in the New Guinea area. Aside from the smaller size of the Palau form there are differences in coloration between this bird and those of Melanesia. In the adult female and the juvenile there are differences in the amount of barring on the underparts and in the shade of color on the upper parts. In the adult male there are differences in the marginal coloring of the primaries and secondaries. E. t. nesiotis may have arrived at Yap from Palau. Little is known concerning the taxonomic position of this bird. On the basis of the information available, it appears closer to the Palau bird than the Ponapé bird in color; however, in size it probably more closely approaches the latter subspecies.

The Ponapé Cicada Bird, E. t. insperatum, appears to represent a colonization distinct from that which established the populations at Yap and Palau. This conclusion is based on the fact that the adult female of E. t. insperatum has distinctive reddish coloring and lacks the barring on the underparts, and that it may have been derived from an ancestral stock, which was reddish and not barred, such as E. t. remotum of the New Ireland area. The three subspecies in Micronesia may represent remnants of a single colonization, since additional material from Yap may prove that this island population has characters intermediate between those of the other subspecies of Micronesia.

=Dicrurus macrocercus harterti= S. Baker

Black Drongo

Dicrurus ater harterti S. Baker, Novit. Zool., 26, 1918, p. 299. (Type locality, Formosa.)

Dicrurus macrocercus Baker, Trans. 11th N. Amer. Wildlife Conf., 1946, p. 211 (Rota).

Dicrurus macrocercus harterti Baker, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 65 (Rota).

Geographic range.--Formosa. In Micronesia: Mariana Islands--Rota (introduced).

Specimens examined.--Total number, 7 (4 males, 3 females), from Mariana Islands, USNM--Rota (Oct. 18, 19, Nov. 2).

Remarks.--This drongo was introduced from Formosa to Rota by the Japanese South Seas Development Company (Nanyo Kohatsu Kabushiki Kaisha) apparently in 1935. An illustrated booklet, printed by this organization and seen by members of the NAMRU2 party at the Rota Civil Government headquarters, showed pictures of the captive birds before release and indicated that they had been brought to Rota for the purpose of controlling destructive insects. Dr. Charles Vaurie has examined these birds and compared them with a series of drongos from Formosa in the collection of the American Museum of Natural History.

The drongo appears well adapted at Rota, where it prefers cultivated areas and the bombed village sites to thick woodlands. Birds were found in small flocks often perched in large shade trees in village areas. Weights of two immature males are 53 and 61 grams. One adult male measures: wing, 144, tail, 153, culmen, 26, tarsus, 22.

=Corvus kubaryi= Reichenow

Marianas Crow

Corvus Kubaryi Reichenow, Journ. f. Ornith., 1885, p. 110. (Type locality, Palau, error = Guam.)

Corvus solitarius Kittlitz, Obser. Zool., in Lutké, Voy. "Le Séniavine," 3, 1836, p. 305 (Guahan); Bonaparte, Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. Paris, 37, 1853, p. 830 (Mariannes); Kittlitz, Denkw. Reise russ. Amer. Micron. und Kamchat., 2, 1858, p. 143 (Guahan); Oustalet, Nouv. Arch. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, (3), 7, 1895, p. 216 (Guam and Rota).

Corvus spec. Hartlaub, Journ. f. Ornith., 1854, p. 167 (Mariannen); Gray, Hand-list Birds, 2, 1870, p. 12 (Marianne).

Corvus kubaryi Hartert, Novit. Zool., 5, 1898, p. 59 (Guam, Rota); Wheeler, Report Island of Guam, 1900, p. 13 (Guam); Matschie, Journ. f. Ornith., 1901, p. 112 (Guam); Seale, Occ. Papers Bernice P. Bishop Mus., 1901, p. 55 (Guam); Safford, Osprey, 1902, p. 69 (Guam); idem, The Plant World, 7, 1904, pp. 3, 264 (Guam); idem, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb., 9, 1905, p. 79 (Guam); Prowazek, Die deutschen Marianen, 1913, pp. 87, 102 (Marianen); Reichenow, Die Vögel, 2, 1914, p. 306 (Palau); Takatsukasa and Kuroda, Tori, 1, 1915, p. 64 (Marianne); Cox, Island of Guam, 1917, p. 21 (Guam); Kuroda, in Momiyama, Birds Micronesia, 1922, p. 69 (Guam, Rota); Meinertzhagen, Novit. Zool., 33, 1926, p. 73 (Guam); Hand-list Japanese Birds, rev., 1932, p. 169 (Guam, Rota); Bryan, Guam Rec., vol. 13, no. 2, 1936, p. 25 (Guam); Hand-list Japanese Birds, 3d ed., 1942, p. 187 (Guam, Rota); Mayr, Birds Southwest Pacific, 1945, p. 298 (Guam, Rota); Watson, The Raven, 17, 1946, p. 41 (Guam); Wharton, Ecol. Monogr., 16, 1946, p. 174 (Guam); Strophlet, Auk, 1946, p. 540 (Guam); Baker, Ecol. Monogr., 16, 1946, p. 408 (Guam); idem, Condor, 49, 1947, p. 125 (Guam); idem, Smithson. Misc. Coll., vol. 107, no. 15, 1948, p. 66 (Guam, Rota).

Corone phillipina Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 46 (Marianne).

Corone kubaryi Wiglesworth, Abhandl. und Ber. Zool. Mus. Dresden, no. 6, 1890-1891 (1891), p. 46 (Pelew, error = Guam).

Geographic range.--Micronesia: Mariana Islands--Guam, Rota.